I've never been a cat person.  It all stems from an incident when i was about 7 when I was carrying my friend's cat.  This cat was sick, and decided that it needed to take a shit.  Right now.  All over me.  And my zoobaz shirt (which my mom had lovingly made for me...I know, so ghetto).  I've turned around a little since living with people that have cats.  My roommate in Minneapolis had Buffy.  She liked me, and I tolerated her...even somewhat missed her when I moved out.  But I never let her in my room, as she liked to jump on things, and once broke a ceramic figurine that I had on my dresser when I had allowed her the freedom of my room.  My current roommate has two cats, Sasha and Molly.  I don't let them into my room either.  Sasha and I have a love/hate relationship that borders on hate/hate.  Basically he only pays attention to me when he's hungry, and then he's just damn annoying.  And then there's Molly.  Under normal conditions, she's good.  She's cute, and cuddly.  But when she's in heat...I just want to throw her out the window.

Which brings me to today.  I'm getting ready for work (yes, work on a Sunday...I rawk) and walk into my room after taking a shower.  I sit down to my computer to hear Molly meowing incessently, like she has for the past week (she's in heat again).  I try annoying it, but it get's very annoying, so I walk out to the living room, and as soon as I close my bedroom door, I don't hear her anymore.  Which means she's in my room.  I walk back in, and hear her, and it gets quite loud around my computer...close to my window (which I leave open almost all the time so my room doesn't get stuffy).  So, I look out, and who do I see standing on the ledge outside the living room?  Molly.  I do my requisite 'oh shit' and run to the living room to open the window and coax her back in so she doesn't fall and die a horrible 7-story freefall of a death.  Then she jumps across and back into my bedroom window.  She was a little shaken, as was I, but seems to be unfazed.  She must've snuck into my room and found her way out the window, as the only other window open in the apartment is in the living room, and there's no way her head would've fit through that crack.

This is why I keep my bedroom door closed at all times.

And then I found $5.

Does anybody want a $250 paperweight made by apple in the shape of a iPod Nano?

*edit - For some reason my battery died to the point I couldn't even turn it on.  Even when I plugged it into my computer, it didn't turn on at first.  It finally got started, and I checked the battery level, and it was very, very low.  It must've been playing in my bag for a long time.  I know when I put it away on Friday, the battery was low, but not *LOW*.  Sorry for the overdramaticism that is me.

Sorry, it's been a while since I've updated this thing.  A lot has happened since the last real post. 

I now have a job.  I started the Tuesday after Memorial Day.  I work for a company that does...you know, I don't exactly know what the hell the company does.  I think they do research and write software for Health Plans and stuff.  I know that their biggest customers are Blue Cross/Blue Shield in a couple of states.  I work as the Administrative Assistant/Receptionist.  The receptionist part is pretty quiet.  The phone rings 6 times a day, at most.  I have some great coworkers.  They seem to have taken me under their wings, and now I'm a member of "the cool kids."  Now, when your company is mostly software engineers, that classification isn't too terribly hard to get into, but I feel cool anyway, and you can't stop me.  After my first week, the Exec Asst had the group over to her house for drinks.  That was quite fun, and I became quite incoherent.  Just ask Meggie.  And this past Friday, we went out to Happy Hour at Solstice in Pacific Heights.  Let me tell you, after the week I had (the CEO gave me a project, and was on my ass to get it done, why being completely vague as how to do it), I really needed a drink.  One of my coworkers decided that she was going to have her birthday party at Solstice come July, so we decided to scope it out.  It's a loungy-type bar, which made for a very comfortable evening, filled with champagne & wine.  Next weekend is another coworkers birthday, so I think I'll be going to her birthday dinner.  I have no idea where, but it should be a blast. 

I've been doing a lot of walking.  That comes naturally when you live in a large city and don't have a car.  Meggie and I try to get out every Sunday to have an "adventure" around the city.  We usually pick a neighborhood and go.  Either that, or we go to a special event (as long as it doesn't cost too much, and by that, I mean free).  We try to walk for a couple of hours, so usually 3-4 miles.  A couple of the things we've seen: Bay to Breakers and the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair. 

Bay to Breakers was a lot of fun to watch.  A 7 mile-ish "race" that is more of a parade of freaks.  I absolutely loved it.  Except the ugly naked men walking down the street.  There were a couple of pretty naked men, but they were an anomaly.  The costumes were fabulous.  Some took more creativity than others, but they all made the trip up to Golden Gate Park well worth it.  We then walked until my knees started giving out, and crashed at home.  Next year, Meggie wants to walk.  I'll join her, but no crazy costumes for me.

Today was the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair.  It was quite fun.  They had some good music.  Everything was completely overpriced.  Five bucks for a cookie!!!  Oh, wait....what kind of cookie is that?...a ganja cookie?...aaahh...now I see why it's expensive.  The people watching was quite fun.  Not as over the top as Bay to Breakers, but a good cross-section of the population of San Francisco.  Granted, there were more of the neo-hippie crowd there than the business crowd (but it is Sunday, so they could've been the hippies...you never know).  The food smelled sooo yummy.  It makes me really want to grill.  Oh, and they had deep-fried Twinkies!  So, first you eat your ganja cookie, and then go straight for the deep-fried Twinkies.  They had live music on two stages (actually, when we were at the Masonic stage, named after the intersection of Haight & Masonic, they had a DJ), and the one band that we caught was an AfroFunk band called Aphrodesia.  They were quite good, and watching the people dance was interesting.  Standing there, listening to the music, I would get a whiff of smoke that suddenly gave me the munchies.   Hmmm...I wonder what that could've been.

Also, Meggie and I have seen some great neighborhoods.  Yesterday, we walked through the Mission, took BART to Civic Center Station, and proceeded to walk to the Castro.  By the time we got there, we were pretty sore.  It was a gorgeous day out yesterday, so we walked around Mission Delores Park as well.  Some great eye candy, and some adorable couples.  The people grilling made me want to grill myself again (that is, grill food for myself, not grill myself for food...that would be...ewww).

I think that's enough of my scattered ramblings for the day.  Until next time, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Well, I got a call at about 9 this morning from the company I've been interviewing with .  I was in the bathroom, so I missed the damn call.  They want to make me an offer!  Can we say HellzYeah?!  I tried calling her back, but went straight to voicemail.  I guess I'll just wait by my phone for her to call me back.  Hopefully its a good enough offer I won't have to see about Standard & Poor's.

Me tired of sitting on me ass doing nada.

Its Thursday.  That is all.



OK, that's not all, but it kinda feels like it.  I have to make a concerted effort to remember which day it is.  The days just kinda run into each other at the moment.  I can't stand having absolutely nothing to do.  Even if I bitch and complain about work, it's something to do, and I get paid for it, sooo.

On to the job front.  I received an email early this morning from the company I've been interviewing with.  All it was was a Outlook meeting thing for a meeting tomorrow at 9.  I was totally confused, but it made me happy, cuz I thought that meant that I had the job.  I figured that I'd call or email them in the afternoon, just to make sure that I was, in fact, supposed to go in for a meeting at 2:00 on Friday.  I received an email apologizing for the initial email.  It was a mistake.  Boo.  But the HR chick called me today about references (she needed managers, not just coworkers), and said that I'm in the final 2.  Yay!

Also, I received an email today from Standard & Poor's (you know, the S&P 500 people) at about 5 to 1p asking me to call this chick about the administrative assistant position that I applied for.  So I did about 10 minutes later.  She asked me how soon I could get into the city for an interview.  I said...2:30.  Totally pulled that out of my ass.  Thankfully I had just showered, so I was clean.  I just had to make a mad dash to get all spiffied up for an interview with a huuuuge, important financial company.  Then, I get to the MUNI station.  I think I must've just missed the train, cuz the sign said that the next inbound (towards downtown) train was in 17 minutes.  Now, it's already 1:30, and the train takes about 40 minutes to get into town.  I figure that if the sign is correct, that I'll probably be late, accounting for getting lost time.  So I call up the chick and ask if I could reschedule for 3.  Just as that question was out of my mouth, the next train comes around the bend, like my knight in a shiny loincloth.  So I tell her that I should be able to make it by 2:30.  I got there with about 5 minutes to spare (which in my book, for an interview, is late).  Whew.  It went well.  I could tell that she doesn't like doing interviews and hiring, because she wasn't very good at it.  She had a very thick accent, but seemed to be pleasant.  She said that she would've hired me on the spot, but her only worry was that I would get bored, because I majored in Music.  She thought that I would feel the urge to get back into music,  and quit.  I told her that if I wanted to do something in music, it would be a night or weekend thing, not a full-time job.  I'm not *that* good, geez.  She wants me to meet with the bigwig of the San Francisco offices, but he's in Vegas, I think, until Monday, so she'll call me on Monday to set up an appointment.  Now I don't know what to do.  I think that the other job would be more fun, but I don't know what it pays, yet.  The S&P job pays over $40k a year, and has excellent benefits, but I'm thinking it wouldn't be as fun.  Maybe I'm counting my ducklings before they hatch.  First, I need to be offered a job, before I can start comparing.  God, I hate waiting.

So that, in a nutshell, was my day.  My evening consisted of taking a trip to the Castro to see the sights, and by sights I mean freaks.  God, I love that neighborhood.  I told Meggie that there was an opening ft/pt for a sex shop.  I think she should apply.  Then I could have her get me things with her employee discount.  Always the good friend am I, wanting to use my friends for my own personal gain.  Then I came home and watched the season finale of Ugly Betty.  I really should've watched the rest of the season, but I didn't.  No excuse.  I just didn't.  I'll have to buy the DVD when it comes out, cuz from what little I've seen of the show, I'm absolutely in love with it.

I really should hit The Sak, as I have to get up early tomorrow for...wait a minute...I don't have to get up early tomorrow.  Darn, sucks to be me.

Well, it's the middle of week 2 in the job hunt.  I had an interview last Thursday with a company for an Administrative Assistant position, which went very well.  Yesterday, I had an open house with Ameriprise to be a Financial Adviser.  It sounded like it would be fun, except I would have to pay initially to get licensed.  I would get a signing bonus with them reimbersing me for the expenses, but currently being without fundage proves to be a little issue.  I sat through the presentation, but left before the testing, because I knew that I didn't have the $$$ to pay for those damn licenses.

I had a second-round interview today with the company from last week.  I think it went well and am still getting a positive vibe from it.  I met with the CEO, and he was much less harsh than my previous boss, David.  It sounds like there would be a lot of room for growth in this company, and the way he said it made it sound like it would actually happen, rather than my previous job where they promised growth opportunities, but really didn't deliver.  I then met with the HR chick and took a little "test" on Microsoft Office.  It was a complete waste of time.  I suppose they need to make sure that one is able to do these things like they said, but please.  This was soooo easy.  I passed with flying colors, except that I needed a little instruction with Outlook.  I had to set up a meeting with X,Y and Z attending at q o'clock for t hours.  (If train A leaves Boston at 2:06a heading East at 50 mph and train B leaves Santa Cruz at 3:52p heading West at 25 mph, when will the conductors realize that they're heading the wrong, damn direction?  The answer is when they hit the bottom of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans respectively.)  I've never really used Outlook myself, but it seemed pretty straight-forward, so all is well in Steuckie-land.  They said that they would get back to by the end of the week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get a call tomorrow.  Probably won't be until Friday, but a girl's gotta keep up hope, right?

Otherwise, life sucks on the job-hunt side.  I haven't gotten any other interviews, but I guess one interview that goes well gets a job quicker than 10 that sucked balls.

*Keeping fingers, toes, legs and eyes crossed for good luck*

So, today was yet another fun-filled day of job-hunting.  Submitted my resume to about 10 companies today.  I took the MUNI down to Castro and applied for a server position at a cafe.  That would be fun, except that it would be late-night shifts to start out.  We'll see if I need a second job, or if my first one (if I ever get one) will pay enough to live comfortably.

After searching Craigslist incessently  today, I wanted just to say "screw it, I'm gonna be a bum."  But, just when I was about to quit looking for the night, I got a call from the company I interviewed with last Thursday.  I have a second-round interview with them (including the CEO) on Wednesday.  It was originally for Thursday, but she called me back and rescheduled.  I'm currently pretty flexible, beings that I have practically nothing to do all week.  What kinda surprised me is that they originally told me that they would get back to me the middle-to-end of this week, and here they called me back on Monday.  Not complainin', jussayin.  Hopefully everything goes well on Wednesday, and I'll know if I have a job, or need to cross this one off my list.  I don't mind going into town anymore for anything, as I have my MUNI fast-pass for the week, so I have unlimited rides.

Tomorrow, I have an open-house thingie with Ameriprise Financial for a job.  We'll see how that goes.  They found my resume on Monster, so I'm always a little skeptical, but I'm willing to go sit through 2 hours of BS.  I have nothing better to do tomorrow night.

So, now I'm feeling quite a bit better.  Especially feeling happy that LJ has the autosave doohickey.  I was almost ready to throw my computer out the window (which would be no small feat, beings that it's a desktop computer), but then I realized that all I needed to do was go and enter a new post and it would come right back up.  YAY.

Well, kiddies.  This is the last stop for the night.  I don't care where you go, but you can't stay on the Steuckie-Train.

Well, I'm back.  I guess its time to update this thing, if nothing more that to have something for myself to look back upon.  I'm in San Francisco.  Meggie and I moved into our apartment a week ago yesterday.  Fun, fun, fun.  Six people, one tiny elevator (the second tiny elevator is currently being remodeled), and 5 hours later, we were moved in.  Meggie and I (OK, Meg drove, I rode...but I did navigate, at least) took her brother Erik and her friend Sara to the Amtrak station over in SoMa-ish...on the Embarcadero.  We made it safely back to our apartment with no problems.  The same can't be said for most of the other times we've ventured out in the truck (Fred).  There is a interchange from Hell just south of our place that we have yet to figure out completely.  We have, in fact, figured out how to get back to our place when coming in from the south through the I-280/CA-1/Junipero Serra interchange.  Anyway, back to my story.  We made it home.

Last Sunday, we took Bertha to her home in SoMa.  We decided that we wanted to get to know the city a little better, so we hoofed it for a while.  We walked through SoMa, the Mission District, and into the Castro.  About three and a quarter miles.  Not a bad hike.  We both agreed that we felt at home here in the city.  Oh, and the Muni (Public Transportation), LOVE IT!  We have a light-rail station that brings us to downtown, like, 4 blocks away.  And  we could catch a bus almost right outside our door.  Again, I digress.  The city is great. 

Now, here is where the days start running together.  That would be because I'm unemployed, and sit around my apartment hoping and praying that employers will call.  Anyway, there was a trip to Target, and a trip to IKEA (I think Monday and Tuesday, respectively) where we bought things for the apartment.  In total, we put together 5 pieces of furniture.  And now I can say that I've been to an IKEA.  Not that I'm really proud of that fact, but I had never been to one.

Tuesday, I put in about 13 résumés.  Out of those 13...one call back.  I had an interview on Thursday with a computer programming company that deals with insurance companies and such.  I'm still a little confused about the whole business.  I was interviewed for an Administrative Assistant position.  I had a phone interview on Wednesday, with an in-person interview on Thursday.  It went well.  I met with the HR chick first, and I got a positive vibe from that.    Then I met with the Executive Assistant and the current (well, not current anymore...Friday was his last day) Administrative Assistant.  They said, and I quote, "We like you."  Brian, the now former Admin Assistant, said that I should send a follow-up email to the HR chick to get on her good side.  I did (as you should), and got a response back from both the HR chick and Brian.  Brian said I made some brownie points...Yay!  I have a good vibe, but good vibes don't pay the bills.  Hopefully I'll get a call back next week to meet with the CEO for an interview.  I just need to think like I'm talking to my old boss, Dave.  From their description, that sounds pretty accurate.

Thursday, Meggie went to Davis for a meeting, so I was all alone.  I decided to go back into town, so I took the MUNI to SoMa (damn that SoMa again), and then went to the Castro.  I'm so proud of myself...getting out of the apartment and doing something.  What is this world coming to?

Fast forward to yesterday.  Meggie and I took the MUNI to Chinatown to scope out her new T'ai-Chi studio.  We then walked around Chinatown, over to the Embarcadero, and up to Fisherman's Wharf.  Another 3 miles.  My feet were sore, but that's my own damn fault.  I wore my black shoes, cuz they look better than my ratty sneakers, but aren't made for walking über amounts of distance.  It was a beautiful day for a walk, though.  Sunny, cool, except that it was windy as all hell.  But fun was, in fact, had by all.

Today included a day trip south to Monterey.  We couldn't find any good parking, so we decided to just drive along the bay.  I must say that Monterey is simply gorgeous.  Beautiful flowers just above a beautiful beach (or rocks, depending on where you are along the bay), going right into the ocean (OK, bay...leave me alone!!)  We then took a trip up to Salinas to the Steinbeck museum.  It was interesting and educational.  Now, I really should read some of Steinbeck's works.  Cut to Meggie and I going up 101 in bumper-to-bumper traffic.  Thank god that only lasted for a little while.  We then stopped in The Cats (or Los Gatos to those who speak Californian) to visit David and Diana (a couple of Meggie's friends).  David helped us move in, and is super nice and hospitable.  We stayed there for a while (hour and a half, two hours, maybe?) and came home.

So to recap.  In "the city."  Lots of walking.  Some "adventures" were had (or as Meg likes to say, "we were misplaced for a bit").  Had an interview.  Went well.  Yay.  Love MUNI.  Chinatown, kewl.  Monterey, beautiful.  Been a long week that just seemed to slip by.  And, joy!  Tomorrow starts another.  Maybe I'll have some luck with the employment thing this week.

I finally heard from the temp agency Meggie & I have been working with in San Francisco.  Fucker took over two weeks to get back to me, but I guess I understand.  He was out of town.  It happens.  I'm a lot happier now that I've heard back from him.  We'll see how the rest of the night goes.

So, I realized that I haven't made an entry for a very long time.  Just tells ya how exciting my life currently is.  Actually, I've been exhausted lately.  Don't know why, but I just don't have any ambition at all to write.  Well, here we go again.

I'm moving to San Francisco three weeks from Saturday.  OMG!!  That's just not enough time!  But yet it can't come fast enough.  Work has been OK.  Except for the fact I haven't gotten anything accomplished for about 2 weeks.  I just don't have any ambition.  I'm hoping that they will find someone to replace me before I leave.  There is one prospect...she's a teacher in South Dakota, and wants to get out of teaching.  And she was told that she had to resign at the end of the year, or her contract wouldn't be extended.  Hopefully all works out, so I don't feel too guilty about leaving my job here.

My family doesn't want me to go.  A week ago Sunday, I was greeted at church by my 9 year old niece who said "You can move to Iowa, but not California."  Yeah...like I'd ever want to become an Iowegian.  I guess Peanut has told my mom not to let me go.  I've been threatened by Mon Ange that she was going to kidnap me.  Many people at church have said that they're gonna miss me.  Almost makes me not want to move.  Almost.  Not quite.

My mom is going to take and store my piano at her place (I still have to pay for it, however).  She might also buy my car, so she has a vehicle to drive to work instead of her van...or to sell.  I renewed my drivers license.  It sucks, cuz my license expires two days after I leave Morris, but if Meggie wants me to drive at all once May hits, I had to get it renewed.  Maybe I'll just wait a few weeks to get my California license.  Don't know what to do with my puppy, yet.  That's gonna be a hard one.  He's an annoying little shit, but he's *my* annoying little shit.  He's got a foot fetish lately.  When we go to bed, he goes and licks my feet right away.  Now, I'm ticklish in my feets, so this kinda presents a little problem.  But, I suppose I've gotten used to it.

This past weekend at the U was Jazz Fest, which was *awesome*.  I'll go into that more later, cuz I'm starting to get tired.

Well, until later!
~K

Here is an example of living in a small town.  I walk into church this morning, and get asked by about 30 people if its true that I'm leaving.  OK...not that big a deal...except, I haven't told anybody from my church that I'm leaving yet.  The only thing that spreads faster than STDs out in these parts is gossips.  OK...STDs might be a little ahead of gossip...but you get my point.

I got a new page design.  All is good in the world.

It's Log.  It's Log.  It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's Log.  It's Log.  It better than bad, it's good!

Now available in the new and improved "Mrs. Log," complete with Log-sized power suit and night wear.  For those nights a log just has to get out and dance!

OK, so I haven't updated in a while again.  So, this might just be a long-ass post again.  Although, my puppy doesn't want me typing.  He's standing here looking at me with his big puppy dog eyes and wagging his tail as if he's saying "Bitch, please!  Get off that damn thing and start playing with me.  I need to get out some pent up attacking, bitch!"  I'll ignore him for the time being.  mkllkm.  That's his attempt at writing.  He stepped on the keyboard.  Sorry for that...won't happen again.

My life has been pretty damn boring lately.  Not a whole lot has happened since I got back from the cities.  This past weekend, my family went down to my cousin's place in the cities to see my uncle Bobbo.  Mom, Peanut, Angel, Butthead and mon Ange (I decided that's what I'm gonna call Butthead's fiancée) all packed up in my mom's van.  I couldn't go, as I had rehearsal for the contemporary group on Saturday night.  My mom also had rehearsal, but skipped.  I couldn't, as I was one of two men there to set up and had to run sound.  My mom could miss, cuz she was just singing.  Because Peanut and Angel went with, I was given the job of running a puppy hotel.  I had to take care of Pork Chop, cuz he's only a puppy.  Buddy could hold it, I guess cuz he's, like, 13 years old.  Rocky and Porky didn't get along too well to begin with.  Porky just wants to play, but gets too rough.  He's a golden retriever puppy, and he looks like a little bear cub.  They must've come to a truce later in the morning, as they just coexisted.  In the afternoon, I got them to play with a rope toy for about 5 minutes straight.  It was the most adorable thing in the world.  In my opinion, Rocky was playing, but Porky was thinking "hey, that's my rope, give it back you son-of-a-bitch!"  Still, it was cute.

I guess my uncle Bobbo isn't doing well at all.  When he was here for the weekend, my mom and I thought he looked yellow.  She says that he was much worse this past weekend, to the point of looking green.  Not good.  I don't think there's much time left at all.  This is one of those situations where it's almost better to see them go swiftly, just so they won't be in pain any longer.  I love Bobbo that much.  Maybe it sounds convilluted, or maybe nonchallant, but I don't want to see him in pain.  I was thinking recently about how little this situation has seemed to really hit me.  I had a cringe of mourning when I first heard, but I haven't really felt anything.  I think it has to do with the fact my dad died when I was 15.  After a loss like that, its hard to match anything in magnitude.  Maybe I've just become jaded.  I don't know.

My car has decided to be bipolar.  Starting on Saturday, and going through Sunday, she decided that 1000 RPM while idling was just waay too much.  So she would go at about 500-750 RPM and start stuttering.  This would also happen when I was stopped at an intersection.  She would keep jumping forward, and made life a living hell for the wonderful man driving her.  But, all is well as of this writing.  She seems to be back to normal.  *Knocks on wood*

I finally grew a pair and talked to my boss tonight.  I had planned on stopping in tonight when he went back to get ready for tomorrow.  Well, I ended up having a good reason to go back in.  I had forgotten a sheet of music that I need to practice for Wednesday.  Well, after spending about 1 1/2 hours talking about Boy Scout related items, I finally brought up the fact that I wanted to move to San Francisco with my Muffins.  There was none of the expected screaming, crying and punches.  Oh, and he took it quite well, also.  He said, and I quote "oh, poop."  He doesn't swear at all, and whenever I let an "oh crap" fly, I get scolded.  His wife will let a few good ones fly if she gets startled or really pissed.  So, I told him that I would let him know for sure by the end of the week.  The last thing I need to do is have a serious talk with my mom and make sure she knows I'm very serious about this.  I need to let my Muffins know pretty soon (tomorrow hun).  God, this is freaking me out, now that I've actually more or less made my decision.  I think it will be hella fun (I'm learning the NorCal dialect already), but it pains me to leave my family behind.  But, its now or never.  I feel that if I don't leave now, I'll be stuck in this hellhole of a town for the rest of my life and grow old alone and bitter thinking about what could've been.  That's one huge thing that's on my mind while making this decision.  I don't want to sit around and think "Hmmm.  I wonder what it would've been like had I moved with Meggie to San Francisco."  I don't want to regret not taking an opportunity when it arises.  But again, on the other hand (On the other hand...on the other hand...Tradition...sure, go ahead) I won't have a job right away, and am currently broke.

Meggie, ya wanna be my sugar mama?

I went down to the cities for the weekend.  Can we all say YAY!!!  Get out of the fuckin middle of nowhere and back into civilization, if only for a fleeting moment.  Though I can't necessarily say that my drive down to the cities was a lot of fun.  After the massive winter storm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning, I decided to brave the wind and the crappy roads on Friday afternoon.  The roads weren't poor until I got to about Willmar.  At that moment the roads turned into total shit.  Fast-forward 3 hours after that, and I finally arrive at Meggie's.  I have to say, Muffy, you look fabulous, dahling.  Pearl, Meggie and I chillaxed for a bit and drive on down to Target to get a wedding gift for our ex-coworker, Cassandra.  We had fun making total asses of ourselves (I'm proud, I was only embarrassed by the other two once, which is about 99% better than in the past).  Oh, I forgot about mine and Pearl's ninja war involving weapons.  I had the mop (which I used to clear away some of the snow around the tires of Meggie's Fred) and Pearl attacked back with a windshield scraper.  It was tons of fun.  It's funny cuz we're two.

Not much more on Friday, as we were all tuckered out.  Saturday, Meggie went to T'ai Chi, and left me all alone in her lonely condo.  Well, at least for a couple hours.  We then got all dolled up for Cassandra's wedding.  I have to say that Cassandra looked stunningly gorgeous.  She glowed.  I could see the halo of light around her.  After the wedding, we eventually mozied on down to Bloomington for the reception.  We sat at a table with three uptight, anti-social peoples.  Meggie tried to talk to them, but only one chick was even nice enough to say boo.  The other two were busy flirting with each other.  Meggie had a thing for one of the waiters.  We became emergency replacements for cake cutters, and totally mutilated that bitch.  Meggie, hun, I think we won that round.  Round 2 is yet to be decided.  We got our dance on, but I didn't loosen up until they played some good ole swing music.  What can I say?  I'm a swinger.  We really cut a rug.  I have the blisters to prove it.

Sunday, my Meggie decides NOT to call into work sick, and leaves me all to my lonesome before I'm even awake.  I know, I would normally divorce her for less, but I was in a good mood after seeing that our little Cassandra is all growned up and all hitched now.  I left and had an uneventful trip home.  Except, when I was leaving the cities, just getting on 94 (ya know, the whole Lynnapin thingie), there was a car on I94E that was parked on the shoulder with a nice fire coming out from under the hood.  It didn't look like anybody was around, and I don't know if the fire dept was called.  I don't think anything major, like a big *BANG* happened, beings that I didn't hear it on the news.  Otherwise, I94 was in good condition.  While driving on the 2 lane highways to get to the half-assed excuse for a town that I live in, I noticed that the snowmobilers were having a heyday.  That reminds me of a story.  Picture it...Sicily...1924...oh wait...wrong story.  Picture it...Alberta (MN, not Canada)...1999...Every year in high school, on the last day of school, we would have the afternoon full of games and shtuff.  Like powder puff football, throwing water balloons at the teachers (only the younger ones, cuz the older ones would've given you detention to be served next year), and tug-o-war.  Yes, we would have a massive tug-o-war tournament, with the opposing teams being stuff like, city dwellers vs country-folk, 11th grade vs 10th grade, boys vs girls, John Deere vs the red brand (I'm a terrible farming country child, I don't know the name of that brand), and the one that I was reminded of yesterday, ArctiCat vs SkiDoo.  Yes, we had that type of teams.  It wasn't uncommon for there to be 5-6 snowmobiles outside of our school during the winter, and out of those, probably 2-3 had their keys in the ignition.  There's a sign of a small town for ya.

I spent the rest of  Sunday at the laundromat after cleaning my bedroom.  As of tonight, I have 2 completed loads, and an estimated 5-6 loads left.  Yup, I really need to clean my room more often, but, eh.  I played cribbage with my mommy.  That was actually quite fun, as we're both about the same ability.

There's some more heavier stuff I could go into, but not tonight.  I'm tired.  I almost wrote "I'm a tire" by accident, so that should tell you something.  So, yeah.

Sincerely,
Dr. Reginald James Watson Beaverhausen, III, PhD.

So my cruise around the world in 7 movies made an emergency landing in Buenes Aires, Argentina, and never got back up in the air.  I started watching a movie that I had bought, but hadn't actually watched.  Vagón fumador (Smokers Only) was a dissapointment.  The plotline was OK, but hard to follow and really slow.  And the subtitles just pissed me off.  They weren't separated by character, so it was hard at times to figure out where one character finished talking, and the next started.  And then they would flip through on set of subtitles in, like, 3 seconds, so nobody who wasn't a super speed reader would be able to read them.  I couldn't even finish the movie, and I couldn't go on.  But on the plus side, Bicycle Thief and Black Orpheus were great movies (and still are for the record).

My uncle Bobbo came up for the weekend on Thursday.  I just realized how much has happened that I haven't updated...so get ready for a long-ass post.  I went over to see him on Thursday (and to raid the refridgerator at the laundromat), but on my way over, about a mile out of Mo-Town, I hear this thump, thump, thump, thump.  Shit.  I pulled over to assess the damage.  I get to the rear passenger side, and hear this ssssssssssssssss sound.  Shit.  OK, so I have to change my tire.  I think, "Well maybe there's something small stuck in tire that I can pull out and maybe make my way over to Cho-Town before I have to change the tire."  Yeah...not so much.  When I got the thing out, I come to find out that it was the metal end of a bungee cord, and the whole is rather large.  So...here I am in the middle of nowhere (although across the street from the airport) trying to change my tire without a flashlight and it's completely dark out.  Thankfully, it wasn't Wednesday night, cuz the wind was terrible, but, at least, Thursday was gorgeous.  By the time my mom comes with a flashlight (when actually, her headlights did the job better), I had my car jacked up, the tire off, my donut on and putting the bolts back on.  Yeah, I've done this a few times.  I get over to my mom's and eat and say 'hi' to Bobbo and go home.

Friday...I Got my car in to 'fix' the tire, but ended up spending over $200 replacing 2 tires and getting an alignment.  Thankfully, I had just received my state refund.  I'm thinking that my karma is pretty clean after all of this.  The day was kinda boring, but I went to a jazz concert at the local U, and it was awesome!  I guess I already went into that, so won't go into any more detail (you're all welcome).

Saturday...stuck at home, cruising the world, one movie at a time...ok, so you got that too.

Sunday...Went over to the laundromat to spend the afternoon with Bobbo, Peanut, Angel, Bear, Monkey and Desi (look it up, damnit!).  Butthead (that's Meatball's new nickname) and fiancée didn't come because of the roads.  Wusses.  My aunt Phyllis and her family didn't come either.  That's probably good, cuz the last time my cousin tried driving in shitty winter weather, she went in the ditch and I had to go help her (45 miles away...and I'm supposed to be able to drive in that shit, wtf?).  Did I mention that this was at 1:00 in the morning, after I had gone to bed.  We had fun, except Peanut was in a shitty mood.  He's really having a hard time dealing with all this.  But it pissed me off, cuz we're all having a hard time with this, and come on, it might be the last time we get to see Bobbo.  He got better as the day went on, but still.  I played cribbage with Bobbo.  He skunked me the first game, beat me the second game, but I skunked his ass the third game.  Booyah!  Then he quit.  Bastard.  I also won at Deal or No Deal.  But it sucked cuz I actually had the $1,000,000 briefcase.  The sad thing about the day came when my mom and I noticed that Bobbo was starting to get jaundiced.  That is not a good sign, as it means his liver is shutting down.  And I find out tonight that the fucking insurance company/doctors in the cities fucked him over by taking way too much time to get a referal to the one specialist that performs the procedure that could've saved him (probably not, but would've probably extended his life).  And it would've made him radioactive for a few days after the procedure.  I wanted to see if he glowed in the dark (I know, macabre, but ya gotta make the best of the inevitable).

Monday...Is that today...no it's Tuesday...damn I'm fucked up with my days.  I went over to help Bobbo pack up a bunch of boxes of books that he had mailed up from Floriday (40 in total).  I actually went to pick up my laundry, because nobody was there when I called before I left.  When I arrive, Peanut tells me that they took everybody out to the local italian restau...restur...restar...diner, but forgot about me.  Fucktards.  That's about all (except Meggie's phone call where she *squee*ed in my ear (sounds dirty, I know)).

Now, it's Tuesday, and tomorrow we're supposed to get another round of winter storms.  Fuck, I hate these pieces of shit ass fucked up storms.  It just better be nice on Friday so I can get down to the cities without any problems.  I really need to get out of the ass-crack of nowhere.  I need my eye candy in uptown (even though they're all covered up against the cold).  And I'm excited to see Cassandra.  I swear it's been 10 years since I've been to a wedding and been able to just sit in the congregation.  It's probably actually been longer.  I can't even think of the last time.  Damn relatives asking me to play the fricken organ.  I hate that thing sometimes...ok, I just hate that thing at weddings, cuz nobody pays any attention to you (even thoughy you've put in hours of practice) unless you fuck up.  And I just tend to hate going to weddings of my relatives, cuz I pretty much hate my relatives that've gotten married lately.

OK...Enough ranting.  If you've made it all the way through this thing, you're probably Meggie.  If you haven't, that's ok, I just needed to type, beings that I haven't been keeping up on this too well lately.

Well, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (and Gentleladies).

I wanna write right now, but Puppy of Evil™ is biting the shit out of my hand.  I guess I'll write later.

OK.  The old addage of MN that if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes is sooooo true.  This morning was total shit out.  Now, the highways aren't too bad (they're at least plowed) but the city roads haven't been touched since this morning.  Fuckers.  And we're supposed to get another round yet tonight.  I hate winter.

I'm taking a trip around the world today.  I've been to Italia, am currently in Brasil, and plan on visiting México, Italia again, and back to México.  I'm going on a foriegn film kick.  I've watched Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thief).  I'm in the Middle of Orpheu Negro (Black Orpheus).  And I plan on watching Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch), La Vita é Bella (Life is Beautiful...god I love this movie) and Y Tu Mamá También (And Yo Mama Too).  Maybe I'll make it a night with Gael García Bernal and watch La Mala Educación (Bad Education), too.  He's in two of the movies already, so why not.  I really wish that I had Cidade de Deus (City of God).  That is a great movie, but I'm too cheap to buy it.  Meg keeps saying that I need to watch Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie).  And I sometimes think I should watch Trois couleurs (Red, White and Blue).  Have I mentioned that I love foreign flicks?  I think my collection of foreign films is larger than my Hollywood films.

Well, time to fly back to Brasil.  À toute à l'heure!  For those who don't speak French: Toodles!